It is difficult to
understand
why anyone would take Mort Zuckerman seriously. He is a New York
based but Canadian born Israel firster who made a fortune in real estate
before buying The New York Daily News and the US News and
World Report. He now fancies himself as a leading journalist
and political commentator. Zuckerman is frequently spotted on
the television talking head circuit where he dispenses analysis of
international
events that could have been crafted in Tel Aviv or Herzliya, where the
Israeli intelligence service Mossad has its headquarters.

Zuckerman’s latest
contribution to international
harmony is a lengthy piece
in the US News & World Report entitled “Israel Is a Key
Ally and Deserves US Support.” It is a propaganda piece that promotes
one of the most persistent fictions put out by the mainstream media,
that the relationship with Israel somehow benefits the United States.
To give the devil his due, it is not often that an article in a national
publication includes an out-and-out lie in its first few words, but
Zuckerman succeeds in doing just that. As he is a smart man who
went to Harvard Law School before becoming a propagandist for Israel,
he must know that words have meanings. But the significance of
the word “ally” must have somehow eluded his grasp. Israel
is not now and never has been an ally of the United States. As
Zuckerman is a lawyer he should know that to be an ally requires an
agreement in writing that spells out the conditions and reciprocity
of the relationship. Israel has never been an ally of any country
because it would force it to restrain its aggressive behavior, requiring
consultation with its ally before attacking other nations. It
is also unable to define its own borders, which have been expanding
ever since it was founded in 1948. Without defined borders it
is impossible to enter into an alliance because most alliances are
established
so that one country will come to the aid of another if it is attacked,
which normally means having its territorial integrity violated.
Since Israel intends to continue expanding its borders it cannot commit
to an alliance with anyone and has, in fact, rebuffed several bids by
Washington to enter into some kind of formal arrangement.

The article’s spin
begins almost immediately thereafter in paragraph one, where the reader
is informed that “the Israelis have agreed to [a Palestinian state]
in principle.” Zuckerman conveniently overlooks that Tel Aviv
has in fact obstructed every move toward creation of a Palestinian
state because that would stop its continued colonization of the West
Bank and Jerusalem. He then proceeds to lay it on really thick
in the next two paragraphs, where one learns that the Palestinians need
to “do what the Israelis have done for decades, which is to declare…that
both sides have genuine claims to this land,” that the “Palestinian
leadership has all along made an honorable peace impossible,” and
that the Palestinians are not prepared to live with an Israeli state
along their borders. The Palestinians also “beat the drums of
hate” and only the Israelis guarantee freedom of religion in Jerusalem.
Without wishing to be too contentious, it is safe to say that everything
Zuckerman writes blaming the Palestinians can easily be disputed and
should be challenged.

Zuckerman then launches
into one of his major themes, that poor little Israel, always willing
to take risks and do what is right in the cause of peace, has been
betrayed
by Washington. Zuckerman opines that Tel Aviv is right to hold on to
the West Bank because if it gives it up Israel will not be “secure
and defensible” against Arab terrorism. He also provides a hagiography
of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, who apparently is “serious about
making peace” and has done lots of good things for the Palestinians
that he is not given credit for (except by Zuckerman). Bibi is
also reported to be “disturbingly” under-appreciated by the White
House.

According to Zuckerman,
Netanyahu and Israel are “not to blame for trouble in the Middle East,”
and one also learns that “The Islamists are not enemies of America
because of Israel. They are fighting America because they see
the whole West…as antithetical to their own beliefs.” Yes,
this is the new version of they hate us because of our freedom bumper
sticker. Israeli bestiality toward the Arab population that it
dominates, seen on television nightly all over the world except in the
US, has nothing to do with it.

After making sure that
everyone knows who is completely to blame for the Middle East imbroglio,
Zuckerman arrives at the argument that he knows will crush all
opposition.
“Israel has been an ally that has paid dividends exceeding its cost.”
Zuckerman asserts that seventy per cent of Washington’s military aid,
now exceeding $3 billion per year, is used to buy equipment made in
the USA, providing thousands of jobs and making sure that Lockheed and
other struggling defense contractors don’t go bust. And the
Israelis not only provide “access to the Red Sea,” they also permit
US forces to stockpile equipment in Israel for contingencies.
Furthermore, Israel has been “working jointly” and “cooperating”
with the US to protect America’s troops all over the Middle East.
And then there is all that good intelligence that Tel Aviv hands over
to Washington on the many bad guys in the Near East region.

Israeli tunnel vision
means that most of the actual intelligence that Tel Aviv collects is
on organizations that resent being occupied or bombed by Israel, not
groups that actually threaten the US, a point ignored by Zuckerman.
And to those who argue that using billions of American taxpayers dollars
to buy US military equipment for Israel is not necessarily money well
spent in the middle of a financial crisis or that Washington’s unlimited
support for Tel Aviv is precisely the reason why the United States is
in trouble around the world, Zuckerman delivers a final, devastating
retort. Israel has an unrivaled location on the Mediterranean.
Per Zuckerman “One analyst has described Israel as a ‘strategic
aircraft carrier’…”

Well, Mort Zuckerman
is certainly entitled to his own opinion and I suppose he can use the
magazine he owns to spread Israeli hasbara, but the notion that Israel
is some kind of strategic asset for the United States is nonsense, a
complete fabrication. Most recently, Chas Freeman has pointed
out that Israel is useless
for the projection of
American power. The US has numerous bases in Arab countries but
is not allowed to use any military base in Israel. Washington’s
own carrier groups and other forces in place all over the Middle East,
including the Red Sea, have capabilities that far exceed those of the
Israel Defense Forces. Israel has never been a strategic asset
or any asset at all, always a liability. Even the stockpiles of US
equipment
in Israel are a typical bit of bonus support for Tel Aviv from Congress,
placed there for the Israelis to use “in emergencies” while making
it appear that they are for American forces. The supplies are,
in fact, regularly looted by the Israelis, leaving largely unusable
or picked over equipment for US forces if it should ever be needed.

Make no mistake, Tel
Aviv is always carefully calculating how it can use Washington to
further
its own objectives with little regard for possible American interests.
In 1967 the Israelis attacked the USS Liberty in international waters
with the intention of sinking the ship and killing all the crew.
During the first Gulf War Israel had to be defended by the United
States.
In the Cold War Israel spied aggressively on the US while cutting deals
with both the Soviets and Chinese. The intelligence provided by
Israel that Zuckerman praises is generally fabricated and completely
self serving, intended to shape a narrative about the Middle East that
makes the Israelis look good and virtually everyone else look bad –
ask any intelligence officer who has seen the stuff. Israel as
a key ally and security asset? A “strategic aircraft carrier”?
Completely ridiculous.

Mortimer Zuckerman is your typical Israeli firster press magnate. How did these people get most of the main street media under their control? Mr. Giraldi hits another home run. We need a lot more truth tellers like him.

Great article, thanks. Until the Americans taxpayers realize that the USG aid to Israel subsidizes its socialized medicine which includes massages using snakes and/or chocolate lotion massages the Israeli's will continue its disdain for Americans. I happen to admire the Israeli government for being able to care for its citizens, something the U.S. should consider. This is what the USG should be learning from Israel, not the propaganda that come from the Israeli firsters in congress whom should all be impeached for treason against America. Israel know how stupid Americans are, it's easily and readily observable on TV,daily.The pretend christian Zionists have numerous TV programs showing its congregations of fools being abused with disdain from the preachers who insult and call them names, then beg for money and the fools give them money. America is beyond redemption and don't even know it.

You know that if Israel bombed an American ship today, Zuck, Kristol, Krauthammer and the rest of the zionist fanatics would support Israel, rather than their own country. Dispicable. I pray one day the truth will come out about the influence Israel and her bloodthirsty cabal here in the US in starting the Iraq war.

Speaking of stupid/OBTUSE Americans– even if by chance, it was 100% proven by videos and sworn statements that Sept 11 attacks were all done by Israel operatives, nothing will wake-up Americans. Like a son or daughter that beats/robs it's stupid mother for more money for drugs.
Let's not kid ourselves, Israel is a private XRussians run military base for America.
Just imagine if never been a Israel?

It's good he spent lots of time debunking the "Israel as an outpost of US military might" claim. While I think there's a lot of merit to the writings of people like Noam Chomsky on the Israel/US issue, Chomsky et al. mistakenly agree with the claim. Giraldi rightly points out that the tail wags the dog here.

FTA: "Make no mistake, Tel Aviv is always carefully calculating how it can use Washington to further its own objectives with little regard for possible American interests."

Better than being the power on the throne is to be the power behind it. THIS is the real and timeless lesson contained in the stories of Joseph and of Daniel. We foolish Americans would do well to remember it. The Israelis do.

Like Philip Giraldi's most articles is this one pure Israel-bashing and not much more.
That his main "witness" is Chas Freeman is certainly not a surprise. Both would probably
reject any accusation of quite simple anti-Semitism, but that's exactly what it is.

The truth is America would be vastly better off without Israel. It would save the 3 billion dollars a year it wastes on "foreign aid". It would be able to live in peace with the Arab and muslim world. Israel is an albatross around America's neck.

Israel is neither a strategic asset nor an ally; in fact, it's a strategic objective.

Due to the influence of the Lobby, it's probably the number one objective the US has.

A minor thought experiment would show how this is so: if Tokyo, Seoul, Baghdad, Jerusalem, and Houston, Texas were all threatened with destruction simultaneously, and the Pentagon's resources were such that it could save only one of them, which one would be saved?

I don't think anyone would seriously suggest that the American city would be the highest priority on that list.

The point about defined "borders" is penetrating, subtle, and very likely over the head of most of your contemporaries, Signor Giraldi–in or out of diplomacy or statecraft or intelligence and so forth.

Uri Avnery touches on the same organizing image in several essays, and his essay about the seeming analogy between Prussia and the "state" of Israel is also pertinent.

Another approach is to put such a fluid concept of "state" into the context of the old British Imperialism in the Middle East, including the continuing subtilties of the Oxonian political and economic geographers.

Among other things, only the stray Britisher like Scullard ever appreciated the psychological aspects of the Roman fetiales, including the fact that it is impossible to throw a spear over the border into enemy territory where no "border" is seen to exist.

Unfortunately, the subject would take several dense volumes to do full justice to.

Meanwhile, one might ask whether General Petraeus' covert military operatives across the Middle East carry British passports by any chance?

Hey Norm – – -is saying Israel should not have its hand out for any aid from the US anti-semitic? They have their own weapons industries, don't they?
People need to hear the truth about Israel and they certainly won't get it from the talking points in Mort Zuckerman's NY Daily News. I think if most people knew exactly what the sainted Israelis are up to, with our tax dollars, there would be a sea-change—how else do you explain the mass support for a foreign state so obviously against everything America stands for, except for blatant propaganda? Criticism of a countries policies is not anti-Semitism, anti-black, anti-Arab. Bad behavior is bad behavior. Imagine critics of China being smeared as China-phobes?
Mr. Cone Head

We just had a new version of the sinking of the USS LIberty: the Israelis illegally boarded the Freedom Flotilla boats WHILE SHOOTING and killed at least 16 unarmed civilians. The IDF, as usual, claims they were attacked while attacking these boats! But we have video proof this was a lie. For the Freedom Flotilla people filmed everything.

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[…] astute Philip Giraldi critically analysed the claim of Israel’s value to the United States in “The strategic ally myth”, which focuses on a recent article by Israel firster Mort Zuckerman entitled, “Israel is a key […]